Democracy Now! continues to closely follow the movement to reform the healthcare system in the United States. We have interviewed policy makers, doctors, patients, independent journalists, academics, single payer healthcare advocates, and filmmakers.

A new U.S. Census Bureau report reveals the number of people living in poverty last year surged to 46.2 million—one in six Americans—the highest number since the Bureau began tracking such data more than 50 years ago. According to the report, blacks and Hispanics together accounted for 54 percent of the poor, with whites at 9.9 percent and Asians at 12.1 percent. Children under 18 suffered the highest poverty rate. Meanwhile, the number of...

President Obama sent his new jobs proposal to Congress on Monday with a plan to pay for the $447 billion package by raising taxes on the wealthy. Noam Chomsky says, "The healthcare system...the huge military spending, the very low taxes for the rich [and corporations]...those are fundamental problems that have to be dealt with if there’s going to be anything like successful economic and social development in the United States."...

An often-forgotten group victims in the September 11th narrative are the many rescue workers who fell sick after being exposed to contaminants at Ground Zero. According to a new article by ProPublica, recently uncovered documents reveal that federal officials in Washington and New York went further than was previously known to downplay concerns about health risks, and misrepresented or concealed information that might have protected thousands...

The debt ceiling agreement reached this week by the White House and Congress could deal a serious blow to women’s well-being, according to leading women’s rights groups. The deal will potentially impose $1 trillion in cuts to programs that mostly serve and employ women, such as family planning clinics, food stamps, college tuition assistance and childcare. The National Organization for Women (NOW), the largest feminist organization...

As President Obama tries to broker a compromise budget deal that would allow Congress to raise the national debt ceiling before an August 2 deadline, he may appease Republicans by cutting funding for Medicare and Social Security. Congressional Democrats say they have ruled out any gutting of Social Security, but there are concerns the cuts could still be achieved through a backhanded approach. Retiree benefits are set by the Consumer Price...

Today, a Democracy Now! special with the Canadian physician and bestselling author, Dr. Gabor Maté. From disease to addiction, parenting to attention deficit disorder, Dr. Maté’s work focuses on the centrality of early childhood experiences to the development of the brain, and how those experiences can impact everything from behavioral patterns to physical and mental illness. While the relationship between emotional stress and disease,...

Today Vermont is set to make history by becoming the first state in the nation to offer universal, single-payer healthcare when Gov. Peter Shumlin signs its healthcare reform bill into law. The Vermont plan, called the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, will attempt to stem rising medical care prices and provide universal coverage. We speak with Dr. Deb Richter, president of Vermont Health Care for All. She moved from Buffalo, New...

Vermont is a land of proud firsts. This small New England state was the first to join the 13 Colonies. Its constitution was the first to ban slavery. It was the first to establish the right to free education for all—public education. This week, Vermont will boast another first: the first state in the nation to offer single-payer health care.

As the New Democratic Party comes in second in Canada’s election, we revisit Amy Goodman’s 2009 column on the late Tommy Douglas, the NDP’s first leader and the pioneering politician credited with creating the modern Canadian health care system. Douglas was Kiefer Sutherland’s grandfather.

The deepest cuts in the Republicans’ 2012 budget proposal come from programs that serve the poor, including nutrition, student loans, and especially healthcare. In one of the most sweeping changes, the budget plan would gut Medicare and Medicaid programs by turning Medicare from a guaranteed benefit into a system in which private insurers cover elderly Americans, and cutting $800 billion from Medicaid by turning it into a state block...